Intel’s “Optane Memory” is the future of Computing

In today’s world, machines running on Hard Disks (HDD) are really very slow when compared to Solid State Drives(SSD). While older machines are still running on HDD’s, newer machines are being upgraded to SSD’s. This results in a huge change in the working of a machine.

Some of the users prefer to pair a HDD with a smaller capacity SSD to increase booting and heavy application performances.

To avoid these options which may become a headache after a short span of time, Intel introduced something which may become the future of computing.

“OPTANE MEMORY”

What is Intel Optane Memory?

Optane Memory is the mixture of RAM and physical storage. With low latency, Optane can retain data after the power is off. This makes Optane a non-volatile memory.

Optane works much faster than any fastest SSD present today.

Intel says Optane is 4.42 times faster than a ‘NAND’ memory-based NVMe SSD in terms of IOPS (Input/output operations per second) and has 6.44 times less latency … It has also said that Optane could be up to 10 times faster than traditional SATA-based SSDs.

This new memory is a new technology which is developed with Macron. It is also called 3D XPoint (Crosspoint). With this, the storing capacity increases within a space.

Optane Memory is being shipped on m.2 size drives. These slots are already available on the motherboards.

Working of Intel Optane Memory

At first boot after installation, it will learn and will predict the files required. This will lead to a faster access to heavy files and games too.

Sounds great! Right?

According to the working said above, a normal machine with a huge capacity HDD will also give a greater performance.

Dell’s marketing director for Precision desktops Pat Kannar said:

A PC with a hard drive as primary storage and an Optane cache could load the OS and applications faster than an all-SSD system. The trick is that Optaneâ€”which is closer to the CPUâ€”would need to hold images of the OS and key applications … It’s cheaper to do that in some cases than having an all-SSD system.

System Requirements for running Intel Optane

Feeling very excited? What if I say that you might get disappointed after reading system requirements?

Optane is usable only with Intel’s Seventh-Generation Processors or higher. Not only a processor, you will also need a B250, Q250, H270, Q270 or Z270 motherboard. Also, you need a vacant m.2 slot on your motherboard.

Meanwhile, you might not want to get one of this due to lower capacity modules currently available. Only 16 & 32 GB modules are available initially. But, it is also true that Intel is planning to introduce larger capacity Optane’s.

Cost of Optane

Finally the lines you were waiting to read.

Right now, buying Optane with the capacities present currently is expensive. The price for 16GB module is around $50 and for 32GB is around $80. Still, both are available for buying.

It is expected that the prices will come down in near future. Intel is already in process to bring more in Optane variant later this year and in 2018 too.